Foreign-controlled technology platforms can create strategic vulnerabilities even when they operate lawfully. Examine the implications for India and suggest a framework for technological self-reliance.

India's dependence on foreign-controlled satellite, cloud, software and defence systems creates a sovereignty challenge: legal contracts cannot fully neutralise technological leverage.

• Satellite services: network owners may restrict communications or navigation. The article notes that NavIC currently has only three satellites capable of PNT signals, while at least four are needed for standalone positioning. • Cloud dependence: AWS, Azure and Google Cloud support thousands of Indian organisations; foreign-controlled management layers can affect continuity even when data is physically located in India. • Military procurement: imported engines, components and platforms expose production schedules to export controls and geopolitical sanctions. • Financial technology: UPI gives India infrastructural autonomy, but foreign-owned consumer interfaces and cross-border banking links still create points of exposure.

• Distinguish ownership, operational control, data location and substitutability; majority Indian ownership alone does not ensure network control. • Critical infrastructure requires redundancy, trusted domestic alternatives, transparent exit clauses and tested offline/manual fallbacks. • Open standards and interoperable systems reduce vendor lock-in; indigenous capability must include maintenance, chips, operating systems, launch capacity and cybersecurity.

• Strengthen NavIC through a reliable satellite replenishment and launch schedule. • Expand MeghRaj and trusted sovereign-cloud capacity while retaining diversified private providers. • Use procurement rules for technology transfer, source-code escrow where feasible, domestic component ecosystems and periodic resilience audits. • Build allied partnerships without replacing one dependency with another; coordinate standards, cyber exercises and emergency access arrangements.

Strategic autonomy; critical information infrastructure; NavIC; sovereign cloud; interoperability; trusted supply chains; technology transfer